The present invention relates to a rotary press to lay patterns on a support strip, including means to longitudinally drive the support strip at a defined speed, means to supply at least one strip material with the patterns, means to transfer these patterns from the strip material to determined spots on the support strip, means to intermittently drive the strip material through the transfer means at the defined speed of the support strip.
A device has already been disclosed in patent EP 441 596 for the transfer, from a strip material of material to be laid, of printed images of this material in defined locations of a support strip, which is being driven at a constant speed. In such a device, it is clear that the length of the consumed laid material only represents a fraction of the strip material. The strip material to be laid is made up of a laminated material, which is expensive. This is the reason why displacement means have been suggested in the EP document, comprising means to reverse the lengthwise movement of the strip material to be laid, these displacement means for displacement in the opposite direction being respectively arranged up and downstream of the displacement means allowing the image transfer from the strip material to the support strip, in order to reduce the space dividing two successive images on the strip material, so as to maximize the consumption of the strip material and eliminate waste.
In such a device, the strip material to be laid and the support strip have two parallel longitudinal paths in order to allow the transfer means to press them one against each other with adequate pressure, temperature and time in order to allow the image transfer. The supply means of the strip material are necessarily superimposed on the support strip that is bound to go through several successive working stations located along an installation path that can reach 10 meters long, so that the strip material has to be supplied from above the working stations, which makes the changing of paper reels work laborious and hard.
The object of the present invention is to cope, at least partly, with the aforesaid disadvantages.
To this aim, the present invention refers to a rotary press to print patterns on a support strip of the aforesaid type. The rotary press for printing patterns on a support strip includes a driveable support to drive the support strip lengthwise at a selected speed. A supply disposed laterally of the support strip and laterally of the lengthwise direction of the support strip supplies at least one and often a plurality of strip materials having a pattern thereon. There is a transfer device that is positioned for bringing the support strip and the strip material together and for transferring the patterns to the support strip at defined locations. An intermittent drive is operable on the strip material to drive the strip material through the transfer intermittently. The intermittent drive for driving the strip material from the supply drives it initially in a direction transverse to the lengthwise direction of the support strip. There are strip material direction devices positioned after the supply for modifying the direction of the material strip after the material strip leaves the supply and before the material strip passes to the transfer device. The direction is modified from the supply direction which is transverse to the lengthwise drive direction of the support strip to the transfer direction that is parallel to that lengthwise direction. There is at the supply a constant drive for driving the strip material at a constant speed. There is a storage disposal for the strip material between the constant drive and the intermittent drive and the storage disposal stores the strip material before it is driven by the intermittent drive. The intermittent drive may include at least a drive roller and a free rotation roller engageable with it or a plurality of those in series. There is a junction device for connecting the trailing end of one reel with the leading end of the next reel of the strip material. There is a reserve for the material so that the junction device operation does not interfere with the feeding of the strip material. The junction device includes a support for two reels, the reel being dispensed from and a reel in reserve, rotates the support of the junction device to bring the next reel into position and includes supports and guides that move the ends of the strips to form a continuous strip to be fed.
Access to the supply stations of strip material to be laid on the support strip is easy. Taking into account the lateral position of this supply station in relation to the support strip, the supply station can include several units that can be superimposed, while they stay accessible from the floor in order to be easily reloaded. Such an arrangement allows savings in the filled surface while multiplying the number of printed patterns.
This arrangement also favors possible automatic run through without any stop in the production, allowing for this purpose the integration of a strip material accumulator that can be filled with a reserve as the strip material supplying reel becomes empty. This strip material reserve can thus be used during the joining operation between the end of one strip material and the beginning of the following one.
Other characteristics of the present invention will emerge along the following description that will be achieved in relation with the enclosed drawings that illustrate, schematically and as an example, one type of execution of the rotary press to print patterns on a support strip, subject of the present invention.